SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 16 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

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SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

How did Sushil Kumar secure India’s first Olympic wrestling medal in 56 years?

(a)By winning all his bouts consecutively without any loss
(b)By winning three repechage bouts after losing his opening match
(c)By defeating the reigning champion in the finals
(d)By receiving a walkover in the semifinals

Answer

Why

Correct — B. At Beijing 2008, in men's 66 kg freestyle, Sushil Kumar lost his opening bout to Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine.

Stadnik went on to the final, which put Sushil into the repechage. He then won three bouts: Doug Schwab (USA), Albert Batyrov (Belarus) and, for bronze, Leonid Spiridonov (Kazakhstan).

Three repechage wins after an opening loss → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
By winning all his bouts consecutively without any loss — He lost his opening bout, to Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine. His medal came through the repechage, which only a beaten wrestler enters.
(c)
By defeating the reigning champion in the finals — Sushil never reached the final. It was fought between Ramazan Sahin of Turkey and Andriy Stadnik, and Sahin took gold.
(d)
By receiving a walkover in the semifinals — His route bypassed the semifinals altogether. In the bronze bout a repechage survivor meets a semifinal loser, and Sushil beat Leonid Spiridonov there.

Concept

In the 2008 Olympic wrestling draw, a repechage gave a second chance to every wrestler beaten by one of the two finalists.

Those wrestlers fought on, and the two bronze medals were decided by matching each semifinal loser against the surviving repechage wrestler from their half of the draw.

So an early loss did not end Sushil's tournament: the man who beat him, Stadnik, reached the final.

The '56 years' in the stem counts back to 1952, when K. D. Jadhav won bronze in freestyle wrestling at Helsinki. Sushil's 2008 bronze was India's next Olympic wrestling medal.

Key facts

Sushil Kumar won bronze in men's 66 kg freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
He lost his opening bout to Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine, who went on to win silver.
His repechage wins were over Doug Schwab (USA), Albert Batyrov (Belarus) and, for bronze, Leonid Spiridonov (Kazakhstan).
K. D. Jadhav's bronze at Helsinki 1952 was India's previous Olympic wrestling medal.

Study next

K. D. Jadhav and India's first individual Olympic medal (1952)Sushil Kumar's silver at London 2012India's Olympic wrestling medallists up to Paris 2024

Common traps

Reading a bronze as proof of a semifinal run: in wrestling, a bronze can go to a repechage wrestler who never reached the semifinals.
Assuming a first-bout loss ends a wrestler's Olympics: it does not if the winner goes on to the final.

Wrestling is the keyed sport of India's first individual Olympic medal at 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.5, and India's 2008 Beijing medals are asked at 21 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.13.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Current events — all 232 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.